Knight explained that the firm’s initial efforts would focus on the sustainable sourcing of sugar cane, oranges and corn.

A product water footprint is the total volume of freshwater consumed, directly and indirectly, to produce a product. A full water footprint assessment considers the impacts of this water consumption on local watersheds, as well as appropriate response strategies to minimize those impacts.

Water footprint assessments can be helpful in supporting corporate water stewardship efforts by providing a tool to measure and understand water use throughout the supply chain. They provide valuable insight into the largest components and locations of water consumption, the potential effects on local watersheds, and future water availability to serve the collective needs of communities, nature, producers, suppliers and companies.

According to the report, the largest portion of the product water footprints assessed in the pilot studies comes from the field, not the factory.

“We see significant opportunity to engage more directly with our agricultural suppliers to advance sustainable water use for the cultivation of ingredients in our supply chain,” Knight said in a press release. “Our initial efforts will focus on the sustainable sourcing of sugarcane, oranges and corn.”

The report estimated that a half-liter of Coca-Cola has a green water footprint of 15 liters, a blue water footprint of 1 liter, and a grey water footprint of 12 liters. But the numbers mean little without the proper context, Nature Conservancy claims.

“More important than the numbers associated with a water footprint are the impacts of water use,” said Brian Richter, Freshwater Program Co-Director, The Nature Conservancy in the joint press release. “When properly managed, even large volumes of water use can be sustainable in locations where the resource is sufficient to support the use and sustain ecological health. The number associated with a water footprint is not the end game, but rather a starting point to addressing the sustainability of the water source.”